Retailers Track Your Returns
Retailers like Amazon have changed their return and exchange policies in recent years to make them more attractive to shoppers. While this is convenient for buyers, it can lead to abuse and fraud.
To combat fraud, according to a Wall Street Journal report , some stores like LL Bean have made their policies less generous, while others like Best Buy have hired a service called Retail Equation to track customer returns. … Then Retail Equation will “measure the shopping behavior of shoppers and set limits on the number of items they can return.”
The service uses an algorithm to track your returns and then compiles a “risk score” that, in some cases, will be used to prevent you from returning an item if it suspects fraudulent activity. The magazine reports that 34,000 retailers work with Retail Equation, although the company did not provide a complete list. However, the WSJ learned that Home Depot, JC Penney, Sephora, and Victoria’s Secret are also using it in addition to Best Buy.
If you are denied a return, you can request a copy of your return report on the company’s website. Although, if you’re looking for what behavior triggered the ban, it might not be very promising: the Log says the report does not include purchase history, other information used to calculate points, what your actual score is, or why you got banned. from returns. But if this happens, you can try to combat it and ask for the ban to be lifted.
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